


On The Same Page

by shinjiteii



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: M/M, idolverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 14:20:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16894248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinjiteii/pseuds/shinjiteii
Summary: Woohyun and Sunggyu had a complicated relationship. They were not exactly the best of friends neither were they lovers.  Sunggyu swore he was attracted to women, mostly women, and he would very much like to have a non-controversial love life, how much ever non-controversial life an idol could live. It seemed to be the truth. But is it the truth?





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> so the first chapter for this was uploaded on aff sometime in 2016 and the second chapter on March '17. this story was abandoned previously because i didn’t want to write idol au ever again, but now I’m kinda over my heartbreak (probably) and will continue writing this, hence it is being cross-posted. this was previously titled ‘Ice and Eyes’
> 
> the story starts with ot7 and will then be focused heavily on woogyu
> 
> also, i believe these two chapters are one of my best pieces of work for the fandom (as good as the horrendous writing can get), so i’m scared to continue writing and ruin it, but oh well…

 

 

 

Woohyun and Sunggyu had what one would call a weird relationship. Sunggyu had wondered for years about their relationship status, well not actually in a way that would be obvious, all of the thinking he did was by himself, hiding it from his members, not that he could hide anything from them, but hey, at least he tried.

Kim Sunggyu was not a bad actor. Of course no successful idol could be a bad actor. Acting in a way that made people think good of you was necessary. Idol business was not completely pretend, but idols were human beings too. They had their moments too. They cannot be expected to smile all the time, but that was exactly what they were expected to do, and so, acting was one of the top skills an idol should possess to be successful. All the bullshit about idols not being good enough actors Sunggyu did not believe, if idols were actually so bad at acting, that meant they were actually perfect in real life which in most of the cases was not so. So Sunggyu tried to hide what he was thinking from everyone, and he was successful at it, but he was sure he was as transparent as water to his members.

Back to his relationship with Woohyun, it was a weird one. The members had already accepted them. Wait, what was he thinking? Accepted as in, accepted their weird relationship. Not that they were gay or anything. Sunggyu very much liked females. He could not even think about loving a male. There were certain obvious exceptions to this, Sunggyu did find some males attractive, but he dare not voice this out loud, he was still in favour of having a female as his life partner. He had no problems with being gay, but he preferred females. Really. So that would probably make him a bisexual, but he wanted a female because he preferred them and also because he wanted a non-controversial love life. Besides, he didn’t think he would be able to develop any feelings besides lust if he had a male for a partner. He did not like them like that. He needed a girl he would love with his life and someone who would love him as much in return. No one would have thought of him as a romantic, he was not, but he wanted his love to be real. He did not want an annoying partner. He wanted a girl who would be polite and not cunning, someone beautiful. He had the brains; all he needed was a beauty. Of course, he needed a girl with sense. He did not want a brainless beauty, but she should be at least beautiful enough to attract him. Oh..and here he was going off track again.

About his relationship with Woohyun, it was a weird one, because- it was weird. No one would be able to give it a name. Fans had given them countless tags- friends, brothers, enemies, competitors and even lovers, the later of all, being the most popular and the most absurd. Sunggyu snorted. If only they knew. The minds of those fangirls never failed to amuse Sunggyu. He had read a fair share of fanfictions about Hyunsung or Woogyu as the fans called their pairing. He did not like the name. Shouldn’t it be Sunghyun or Gyuwoo? He was neither a girl nor did he bottom, so his name should have been the first part of their couple name. But recently top Sunggyu had been a trend at least in the international fandom from what he had heard, so he was happy. Weird wasn’t it? Being happy about something like that? But Sunggyu liked himself in control, even if he was lazy. . even if he thought sleep was better than anything else in the world. Heck, he even had a song named Kontrol. Alright, he was being Myungsoo (weird) again.

He was really happy though that fans considered him as a top in his imaginary relationship with Woohyun. He had not lost his pride yet. He and Woohyun have had sex in almost all possible positions in those fanfictions, in as many possible roles, in so many different ages and eras, that he and Woohyun found it simply amusing. Sunggyu had never actually fucked Woohyun, nor had Woohyun ever fucked Sunggyu, they did not go all the way, and they were never going to do so ever. Sure they had helped each other jerk off, and have had pretty intense orgasms without even needing to go all the way, but they had never considered each other as lovers or even partners. For Sunggyu, Woohyun was.... just Woohyun. They would glue to each other like gum sometimes, hug and kiss, act lovey-dovey, they had even made Dongwoo, the king of skinship, almost puke once with their cheesiness. They almost acted like a couple, but they were not one, and both of them were on the same page on that. Sunggyu did not have romantic feelings towards Woohyun and vice versa. That was understood. When either of them was involved in a relationship, they would talk with each other, but stop the skinship and couple talk. Sunggyu missed Woohyun at times like that, but he knew not to dwell on that. After all whatever it was between them would not continue forever. A relationship without love was meaningless. Not that they did not love each other. Sunggyu cared for Woohyun a lot, but not enough to want to spend the eternity with him as his lover. He liked girls and he was sure if he were in a relationship with Woohyun, he would cheat on him with girls and that would pretty much destroy Woohyun. As much as Sunggyu was not a romantic, Woohyun was ten times a romantic.

Sunggyu still remembered the moment when Woohyun had proposed to the first girlfriend the latter had after debut, not a single one of them could forget it as it was the starting point of one of the most nerve-wracking phases of their life. Woohyun had proposed to this actress with whom he had been friends for a while, on her birthday, singing her favourite song, and gifting her a ring, which probably cost him a few months’ pay. Sunggyu could never imagine spending that much on a person he was not sure of marrying. But Woohyun was Woohyun and when Woohyun had after a few months in the relationship, known that the said girlfriend was cheating on him with her co-actor, he had stopped living and was almost a zombie. The members had, including Sunggyu, half-heartedly wanted to help him then, but they had been still jealous that Woohyun at least had a girlfriend, and pretended to be too busy to help him. When Woohyun had fainted one day after extreme emotional damage, the members had been shocked, but it was too late. Woohyun’s elder brother had taken him away from the dorm after scolding everyone he could, from the CEO to the members and managers, for not taking care of him. Luckily they had no promotions or appearances at that time, so the matter did not become public, but Sunggyu knew the members had felt guilty at that time. No one had expected Woohyun to be that devastated. Woohyun had been seeking their company, but they had shunned him, so they had all felt as if it was their fault. Also, Woohyun then did not have any close friends like Key, who he had now, that he could rely on. He only had the members and they had avoided him. Ultimately his family had to step in and take him away from them.

For almost about a month, it had been just the six of them doing individual activities, barely talking to each other. After all, the most talkative member had not been there. Sungyeol had screeched more than usual where not required, Dongwoo had been more hyper than usual minus his gummy smile, Myungsoo had looked as if Myungsoo had vanished and there was only L in his place, Hoya was making mistakes in dance practices, really, and Sunggyu thought Sungjong’s best acting of zombie had been during those days. Sungjong could never outperform his zombie performance of that time. As for himself, Sunggyu had only slept the whole day with occasional breaks to stuff his stomach. He did not have any individual activities and he could not stop eating. In fact he had eaten more than usual, until his managers had discovered, and he had got the worst scolding of his life from their CEO that day. He had to hear for all the wrongs done by all the members, for their disinterest and lack of enthusiasm for work and also for not looking after the other members. The CEO had even threatened to remove him from the group. Of course, he knew Lee Jungyeop would not do that, the CEO loved all the members in his own way, but Sunggyu could not help but be disheartened that he had to hear that from him.

4 YEARS AGO...

When Sunggyu entered the dorm after receiving the scolding from the CEO, he just broke down, crying for everything that had happened. In some time, all the members except for Myungsoo who had been filming for a drama, had gathered around him. He heard the members asking him why he was crying, but he did not reply. If only, they had approached Woohyun like that. Woohyun had cried in front of them too, but they had pretended not to see. Just because of a failed relationship, all of them had to suffer. Sunggyu had known that the girl was no good for Woohyun, but he had wanted Woohyun to know that by himself, so he let him be. Why were girls always interested in Woohyun anyway? Sunggyu was handsome too. Yes, he was jealous. If only Sunggyu would have told Woohyun about the girl... Still Woohyun would have not listened to him, because he would have thought Sunggyu wanted her for himself and because Woohyun was a fool in love. Even so the members could have helped Woohyun overcome his grief, but they had all acted selfish, including Sunggyu himself. He wiped his tears and entered the living room. He sat down on the floor leaning his back on the sofa. The members followed him and sat down around him.

“Hyung, what happened?” Dongwoo asked cautiously patting Sunggyu’s back.

Sunggyu glared at him through his red eyes but Dongwoo did not remove his hand. “I got to hear from Jungyeop-sshi today. He said he would remove me from the group if things go on this way and we could even disband.”

There was silence. Then, “It’s all because of Woohyun, isn’t it? If only he hadn’t started dating that bitch, we would not be in trouble.” Hoya stated. All eyes turned to him glaring.

“What? You know I am right. Idols are not supposed to date anyway, are we? We are not even established enough that it wouldn’t matter if a few fans leave us. If Woohyun hyung would have not done that, we could go on forever. Our last album was a hit too. If we disband at this point, everything will go to waste. I have sacrificed so much for this. You all can go back to your families; I can’t even go back to mine.” Hoya looked hurt.

“How can you be so selfish Hoya hyung? Think about the group. If you don’t have any place to stay, you can stay at my house. My parents will welcome you, but please don’t talk bad about Woohyunie hyung ok?” Sungjong said.

“Why are we even thinking about disbanding?!” Sungyeol exclaimed.

“Because there are chances...” Sunggyu started to say, but Hoya interrupted. “Guys, even I care about Woohyun. It’s just if he had not dated, all of this..... Even I don’t want us to disband. We have given too much for this group.” Then he continued, sighing, “Anyhow what happened, I admit, was majorly our fault. We did not console Woohyun hyung. Not a single one of us.” He paused and they all seem to be contemplating this thought.

“Why are you all looking at me?” Sunggyu asked when he felt all their piercing gazes on him.

“Because you are, I mean, were his roommate, hyung, and you were close too. Even you didn’t do anything.” Dongwoo said.

“But I…” Sunggyu was again interrupted, this time by a loud bang. Their dorm door closed loudly and in entered Myungsoo with bloodshot eyes looking as if he had cried a lot. Seeing all of them gathered and looking at him, he turned away and removed his shoes. When he was done, he tried to escape to his room, but Sungyeol’s long arms caught him and brought him down in front of them on the floor. Myungsoo tried to wriggle free of his clutches, but Hoya helped Sungyeol keep him in place.

“What happened?” Sunggyu demanded.

Myungsoo kept quiet, biting his lips.

“Myungsoo-yah..” Dongwoo came to him but Myungsoo hugged his hands around himself seeming to want to hide away from them all.

“You all wanted this right?” Myungsoo suddenly said voice hoarse. “You all wanted this!” He said louder, pointing accusatory fingers at them. “They removed me from the drama. The director said that I cannot act. He even slapped me in front of everyone and manager hyung stood there just like that saying I deserved it as I was not acting properly. See… you all got what you wanted. Now you can have that role for yourself. They are keeping auditions for the role tomorrow and you, all of you can go have that wretched role.” He broke down sobbing, biting his lips. Sunggyu was sure he would bruise his lips like that. Myungsoo tried to use all of his force to get away, to run to his shared room, but the other members had pinned him down under their weight. Sunggyu freed him from the members and hugged him.

“You wanted it more than anyone, Sunggyu hyung. You hate me for my looks.” Myungsoo cried trying to get away from Sunggyu, but Sunggyu held on to him, kissing his forehead tenderly.

“Ewww…” All the members collectively said and Myungsoo made a disgusted face which looked worse because he had tears streaming down his face.

Sunggyu chuckled, “Yah, if you don’t stop running away, I will kiss you again and this time it will not be on the forehead.” Sungyeol pretended to barf and puke and whatever, but Sunggyu had succeeded because Myungsoo stopped moving and hugged Sunggyu back. He hid his face in Sunggyu’s neck. Sunggyu ran his hands all over Myungsoo’s back, calming him down. He let his fingers into Myungsoo’s straightened hair, stroking it. When Myungsoo’s sniffles seemed to have stopped, Sunggyu said, “Myungsoo-yah, all of us will go talk to manager-hyung. Tell us which hyung it was. Also, I will come tomorrow with you to the director and apologize to him. I will explain to him that things have not been going well in our group, so you were like that, and that you will be able to act well tomorrow. Let’s practice on your acting today. All of us will help.”

“I don’t want to.” Myungsoo mumbled, his voice muffled by Sunggyu’s shirt.

“What?” Sunggyu asked.

“I don’t want to go there tomorrow. I will not act in the drama and you don’t need to apologize to that stupid violent person.”

“But it was my fault wasn’t it? I wanted to be in your place that is why you couldn’t act right?”

“I did not say that.” Myungsoo said removing his hands from around Sunggyu and turned away from him facing down sitting in trademark L position on the floor but with his head buried in his hands. “I…”, he said loud enough for everyone to hear. “It was my fault for not acting well. I was distracted. Sorry for shouting at you earlier.”

Myungsoo looked so cute that Sunggyu wanted to crush him with his arms hugging him, but Dongwoo beat him to it. Myungsoo gave in and returned the hug to Dongwoo and they stayed like that for some time.

“Alright, if you do not want to act in the drama again, I have another option for you.” When Myungsoo looked at him expectedly, Sunggyu continued, “Let’s not think about that drama again and continue to work hard. If you get other drama opportunities you can go for that. Meanwhile, we will practice hard and become the most successful group and you will have that director begging you to act in his drama and then  _you_  can reject him or if you want, you can accept. Either way, you will be the victor.” At that, the members who had been listening to their conversation silently, moved. Sunggyu caught Sungyeol’s wide eyes.

“But Sunggyu hyung, what about the disbanding? We…” Sungjong asked and Myungsoo looked shocked and confused as he was not there when Sunggyu had been crying earlier and all of them had been talking about breaking up. “What disbanding?” Myungsoo tried to ask but no one replied.

“We will not be disbanding.” Sunggyu said in his leader voice. “Come what may. We will work hard, so hard, that everyone will be forced to accept us. We will wait for Woohyun. When he is ready, he will join us if he wants to. Even if he doesn’t want to come back, we will convince him with whatever it takes. After all we are Infinite. We have to be forever.” He looked at others for confirmation. They had unreadable expressions. “All of you are with me right?” he said, laying his hand stretched out in front. One by one the others placed their hands on top of his, nodding at each other and they broke away shouting “Infinite fighting!”

The members had smiles on their faces and Sunggyu could not help but smile himself. It had been so long that they had been happy together like that after Woohyun had left.

“Sunggyu hyung spoke like a leader for the first time today!” Hoya teased Sunggyu. Sunggyu’s smiling face changed into a glare but seeing Hoya without any worries on his shoulder made Sunggyu smile again.

 But because they were Infinite, they continued with the teasing.

“Who made him the leader anyway?” Sungyeol asked. “It’s only because he is the oldest.”

The glare on Sunggyu’s face returned and he tackled Sungyeol to the floor and sat on top of him. He began tickling Sungyeol and Sungyeol was writhing under him.

“Hyung stop!” Sungyeol shouted.

“No, I won’t.”

“Hyuuung…” he said between laughs. “You _are_ the best leader Sunggyu hyung! Pleeeeease...”

“You better remember what you said!” Sunggyu said and got up away from him, shaking his head diagonally in his trademark Sunggyu way. “And also...” He turned to say something more when he saw that Sungyeol had already ran away and was at the door of his shared room. “Yah, listen to what I say! Don’t run away when I am talking!” Sunggyu shouted.

“You are the worst hyung! Dongwoo hyung would be a better leader than you!” Sungyeol shouted back, showing the leader his tongue and slammed the door shut.

Sunggyu was seething with anger and began searching for a target to let out his anger on. Sensing trouble, the other members ran into the other empty room and locked themselves in. Sunggyu clenched his fists ready to punch Sungjong’s innocent teddy bear lying on the floor. He had no other option. Teddy will have to be the sacrifice. That is when he felt a pair of arms encircling him from behind. He was ready to punch the hell out of the person behind him, but that person forced open Sunggyu’s fisted palm and interlinked their fingers tightly.

“Yah Kim Myungsoo!” Sunggyu said, but Myungsoo simply gave him a backhug.

“Sunggyu hyung.”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm”

“If you don’t want to be punched, you have just three seconds to give me a reason not to. I am angry as you very well know.”

“Thank you.”

“Huh?”

“Thank you for being there for us. Even though you are not the best leader, you are the best for us.”

Sunggyu blushed, “Yah. Are you insulting me or complimenting me?”

“Hyung, I am going to say this only once, so please listen.” Myungsoo tightened his hold on Sunggyu. “I am thankful that you are in our life. We are a bunch of brats and we need a leader like you to stay focused. Even though you don’t show that you love us and are really selfish, you still manage to look after us, so I am happy that I could have a group leader, brother, friend and a valuable person like you in my life. Thank you hyung. I love you. And please don’t misunderstand this as a confession.” Saying that, Myungsoo kissed him on his cheek from behind and ran away to the only room unlocked which was Sunggyu’s room and had been Woohyun’s too, and locked himself inside.

Sunggyu had turned totally into a tomato. By the time Myungsoo had locked himself in, Sunggyu had not recovered. He ran towards his room and banged on the door. “Yah, Myungsoo! This is my room! Get your ass out now.” He shouted.

“I can’t hyung. I have not yet recovered from the embarrassment of saying all that to you.” Myungsoo shouted back.

“What embarrassment? I should be the one embarrassed. You basically insulted me.”

“Hyung, I was sincere.” Myungsoo whined.

“Sincere in insulting me? And why did you kiss me? That’s gross!”

“You kissed me first hyung!”

“That was for a different reason. Open the door now Myungsoo! I have my cell phone in there! If manager hyung or anyone else calls, I won’t be able to answer and I will blame you.”

“Fine.” Myungsoo reluctantly opened the door.

Sunggyu pushed him aside, storming into his room, and lied down on his bed. “I will believe you were sincere if you repeat all that you said earlier in front of the others. Can you?”

“You want me to kiss you again?” Myungsoo said and got a pillow thrown on him in response.

“No just say whatever you said again. No kissing and hugging.”

“See. You are selfish! I said that sincerely and you want to brag about yourself to the others.”

“Those kids don’t respect me. I just want them to respect me.”

“What I say won’t change their opinion. Also, I said that I would be saying that only once. I am not going to say it again, hyung. If you don’t want to believe what I said was sincere, then don’t believe it.” Myungsoo huffed and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Does he look like someone not worth respecting? What was with these brats disrespecting him, Sunggyu thought. But he was happy to hear what Myungsoo had said. Sunggyu would buy him triangle kimbap later to show the younger appreciation for his words.

The remaining days went by peacefully as Sunggyu had been forced to forgive Sungyeol for teasing him. He had an inkling that otherwise, it would probably a five vs. one fight which would be unfair for him considering how Sungyeol had somehow managed to pocket all the others on his side. Sunggyu was one to hold grudges but he could not stay angry at any of them for long in any case.

888

They were all gathered in their training room. They had been given a new song for their next comeback and when they had gone through the lyrics they had been shocked.

“I don’t know whether to be angry or happy.” Sungjong said. When Sungyeol opened his mouth to speak something, Sungjong interrupted, “It’s okay. I have already decided. I am angry. Who distributed the lyrics?” Their vocal trainer didn’t say anything in reply, so Hoya went towards him and grabbed him by his collar. “What the fuck is this shit?” Hoya growled. The vocal trainer looked at the members for any intervention or for them to simply take Hoya away, but no one moved and it looked as if they would eat the trainer alive. “Why is Woohyun not included here?” Hoya shook the trainer hard.

“I don’t know okay. Kids, I am older than you. You can’t disrespect me like this. I am not the one making decisions here. So ask the higher ups.”

Hoya’s anger subsided and he let the trainer go. He bowed to him. “I am sorry.”

“It’s alright. I knew you guys would react that way.” The trainer said and walked away.

Just then Sunggyu’s phone chimed. He had received a text message. “Guys, it’s from our CEO. Look.”

_Sunggyu-yah, Dongwoo, Hoya, Sungyeol, Myungsoo and Sungjong. You guys don’t panic after seeing the lyrics distribution. I hope I am not late in sending this message. I had urgent matters to attend to earlier, so I couldn’t inform you beforehand. The lyrics allocation is not final. It doesn’t mean Woohyun is not included, okay? It’s just that he is not there and you guys will have to practice without him that is why we decided to split it among you. If he comes back, we will change the distribution as we had originally planned. The actual distribution has been mailed to you on your IDs. For now, practice with what you get today. Now stop whining and go to practice!_

_P.S.: L, Yeol and Jong, be grateful that you get to sing more parts now at least for some time._

“I don’t like this at all.” Sungjong said.

“Me neither.” Sungyeol agreed.

“I wanted more lyrics for myself, but not at the expense of Woohyun hyung. No offense to you Sunggyu hyung, but we need our main vocal.” Myungsoo said.

“Can we talk to Woohyun hyung and ask him to come back? I know they have prohibited any of us from contacting him, but we can meet him some way secretly. Please Sunggyu hyung.” Myungsoo continued.

Sunggyu cleared his throat. “I understand what you are saying, but we cannot meet Woohyun. We are not allowed to, not that it will stop us, but I think we should give him some more time to recover. If he wants to come to us, he will. We will wait for him as long as it takes.” he said.

“But he might think we don’t need him, if we don’t try to contact him.” Sungjong said.

“We are not in a position to do anything. He left us, we didn’t ask him to leave. So if he has to return, it will be by his own will.” Sunggyu replied.

“But they took us. He didn’t leave on his own.” Hoya argued.

“What if they are locking him inside the house? What if they have confined him? He won’t be able to come on his own.” Sungyeol stated.

“There’s nothing of the sort going on. Jungyeop-sshi even talked to Woohyun himself. He told me Woohyun seems to be doing fine.” Sunggyu said.

“What if that is a lie?” Sungjong argued.

“Well we just have to wait for a while and see what happens. Till then, let’s practice hard so that when Woohyun comes back, all that we have to do till comeback is teach him his parts. Okay?”

The members reluctantly nodded.

888

All of them had returned to almost their normal state and it seemed that everything was going to be fine. Almost one and a half month after the day Woohyun had left the dorm, they got a call from Lee Jungyeop that Woohyun would be coming to meet them in the dorm and that Sunggyu would be expected to handle the situation and deal with everything in the best possible way.

The six members had discussed since long about Woohyun’s situation. They had missed him a lot, with even the most non-expressive members saying that once or twice and there was a general consensus that they would be forcing him back to join them despite of anything. They expected him to return in at least a little better state than when he had left. For God’s sake, he had more than a month’s leave to do whatever he wanted, whereas they were here in the dorms, working on something or the other. They also were free technically but they had some or the other work to do somehow, while Woohyun was completely free. They were not sure of that though since none of them had any contact with him, but their CEO had said that he talked to Woohyun and he had seemed fine so they believed him.

Since Woohyun was expected to arrive in the dorm by six in the evening, they had all finished up with their practice and showered by five. From five p.m. to six p.m., the six members sat on the living room floor, but no one talked. They just waited.

When it was ten minutes past six and there was no sign of Woohyun, Hoya got up from his position and went to the main door.

“WHERE THE HELL IS...” He said while opening the door and was shocked to see Woohyun outside the door. Both of them were embarrassed. Hoya stepped aside to let Woohyun in, but Woohyun just stood there.

“Um. Come in inside hyung.” Hoya said looking at Woohyun.

“Uh. Yeah.” He replied and entered removing his shoes near the entrance.

Hoya studied Woohyun while he entered. His health seemed to be better and he looked fit, but he seemed to be sad. Why was he not talking straight to Hoya? Woohyun was avoiding him and Hoya did not like that. It was different from the Woohyun they knew.

Woohyun entered the living room and the others stood up, asking him to sit in front of them. When all of them had settled on the floor comfortably, Hoya asked, “How did you come here, hyung?”

“Boohyun hyung dropped me.” Woohyun replied. At least he was looking at Hoya now while talking.

“But he was not there outside.” Hoya said.

Woohyun’s face turned red. Hoya guessed that Woohyun was probably standing outside for a while before Hoya had opened the door.

Sunggyu caught on what had happened and quickly changed the topic to prevent Woohyun from facing further embarrassment.

“So let’s talk.” Sunggyu said and all of them shifted their attention to Woohyun.

 

 


	2. Chapter Two

 

 

 

The six boys sat together, Hoya joining them, on the floor in the living room, whereas Woohyun sat down facing them. The boys assessed him. Woohyun looked better than when he had left. He looked well-fed and certainly healthy. But his body seemed to radiate some unexplainable feeling. Sadness? Disappointment? Hopelessness? Woohyun did not look at the members in the eye, but was paying attention to his feet. He was dressed casually, wearing the red t-shirt which the members had collectively gifted him on his last birthday. Sunggyu remembered how dejected Woohyun had looked when he had received just a single cheap present from all of them, until Sungjong had knocked some sense into him, reminding him that they did not earn well enough yet to provide expensive gifts for all members and that Sungjong himself had not received anything from any of them for his birthday at all and that Woohyun should be thankful. Sungjong was the only one Woohyun had allowed wearing that t-shirt since then. Maybe Woohyun had felt bad that Sungjong hadn’t received any present. Or grateful that he had knocked sense into him; because after that, Woohyun had looked happy and that t-shirt had become one of his favourite one. All six of them knew that. Woohyun always wore the t-shirt whenever he needed luck, otherwise it would sit neatly in the back of the cupboard. And the Woohyun in front of them was wearing his red favourite t-shirt. Did he want to be lucky today? Had he also been waiting to meet them like they had been? Did he miss Sunggyu like Sunggyu had missed him? Sunggyu wondered. Well, that could be answered only by the person himself.

“Nam Woohyun.” Sunggyu addressed him in his leader voice. “I… or rather, _we_ have to say something to you first. It is important. Please listen.”

Woohyun, who was till then avoiding contact with them, slowly looked up. His eyes, betrayed his sadness, filled with tears. His face was covered with a lot of makeup for the occasion of meeting just the members and no one else. Sunggyu wondered whether the younger had cried before coming to the dorm.

That seemed to be the case, because Woohyun started crying suddenly and his crying had turned into loud sobs as time passed. The members sat perplexed seeing Woohyun crying. Sungyeol gasped. Dongwoo got up to go to Woohyun but Hoya held him back. After all, they had decided to ask Woohyun to forgive them first for not caring for him when he was broken. All other matters could be discussed later. If Dongwoo went to comfort Woohyun, the matter would be postponed. Sunggyu had to speak up before anything happened. They wanted Woohyun back, and after looking at the crying mess in front of them, they were confused. They could not afford to take any rash actions. First they had to ask Woohyun forgiveness for neglecting him.

When nothing more came out of the leader’s mouth- Sunggyu seemed tongue-tied, his eyes as wide open as was possible, Hoya spoke up. “Woohyun. Hyung. We really have to say something important to you. So please listen to us.” But Woohyun did not stop crying. The six of them waited for Woohyun to calm down anxiously. They did not know why he was crying. It pained them that he still looked broken and fragile. But their guilt had turned them mad the past whole month, and they had been waiting for Woohyun to meet them, just to apologize to him.

“Woohyun-ah...” Sunggyu finally spoke but did not continue, waiting for Woohyun to stop crying and acknowledge him. Myungsoo had retrieved some tissues from wherever and was currently handing them to Woohyun who took them reluctantly. Myungsoo then returned back to his place.

After wiping his tears as much as he could, Woohyun looked at them. He looked angry. “I know what you guys have to say. I already came to know.” He said with a tone of accusation in his voice.

Sunggyu looked at the others questioningly, wondering whether any of them had met Woohyun already and talked to him, but the others seemed as confused.

“I know.” Woohyun continued. “You guys plan to kick me out of the group. I already know. No need to speak calmly to me now, to throw that news upon me later.” He said and tears threatened to fall from his eyes again.

“WHAT?!?! Who told you that?” Dongwoo shouted, getting up from his place. The others were shocked as well. Hoya was clenching his fists tight angrily. How dare Woohyun assume that they would want him out of their group?

“Jungyeop-sshi told me already. He foiled your plan right? You guys probably wanted to manipulate me to leave... I... I…” Woohyun looked as if he wanted to say something more, but stopped, his emotions getting the better of him. He clutched the bamboo pole lying nearby angrily, venting all his frustrations on it.

“When did he tell you this?” Sunggyu asked calmly, too calmly.

Woohyun blinked. “When... when I was about to leave home, ready to come here. I received his call, thinking it was something important…”

“Was it really him?” Sunggyu interrupted.

Woohyun slammed his fists onto the ground. “Don’t fool me you motherfucker! I don’t need your manipulative bullshit now.” He lashed out at Sunggyu. “Do you think I don’t know how he sounds? He called me and said clearly that you guys don’t want me to continue and will probably manipulate me to leave the group. I did not know you were so low. So heartless...” Woohyun threw the pole he was holding away. “At least he cared a little for me, considering he is the CEO and should be looking after only profits, while you guys... You guys are all bastards!!!”

Sunggyu stood shocked. The other members had at some time or the other by then, stood up, and they now cautiously ventured towards Sunggyu to get a glimpse of his face. He looked shocked but that was it. Normally Woohyun would not be standing in front of them, but would have been kicked onto the floor and punched hard, considering the number of swear words and disrespect Woohyun had thrown at Sunggyu. But now was not ‘normally’. Sunggyu turned around, gesturing all the other five members to follow him to his bedroom. They went quietly behind him and Sunggyu locked the bedroom door leaving Woohyun alone outside. Once inside, Sunggyu took hold of whatever was in his reach and threw those anywhere not bothering to see what hit where or whom. The members stayed far away from him.

“Does anyone know about the bullshit that idiot is spewing?” Sunggyu asked them threateningly.

“Whoa… No need to shout at us hyung!”  Sungyeol said. “We don’t know anything that shortie is saying either. Do we?” He said and looked at the others and they shook their heads in confirmation. “Thinking we want him out of Infinite... Aishh! He really thinks we don’t care, huh?” Sungyeol said and sat down on the bed dejected.

“The call to the CEO is connected. Please ask him about whatever Woohyun is saying, Sunggyu hyung.” Dongwoo said, handing the elder’s phone to him.

“Ah. Right.” Sunggyu took the phone hesitantly and put it on speaker.

“Yeobseyo.” Lee Jungyeop’s voice came, as if asking whether there was anyone on the line after receiving no response.

“Sajangnim. This is Sunggyu.”

“Ah. I know it’s you. I have your number saved, son.”

“Ah, yes, yes.” Sunggyu rolled his eyes. “The thing is… Woohyun is at the dorm now and he is saying.....”

“What is he saying?”

“He is saying that we want him out of the group.” Hoya said. “And that you told him about the same.”

“Ah. Hoya.” Jungyeop paused. “I did say that.”

“What?!” The members unanimously exclaimed.

Sunggyu brought his phone closer to himself, and asked, “You want him out of the group?” His voice broke.

“No. I never wanted that and I know you guys don’t want it too. But I wanted to give him a scare. What does he think? Staying at home for two months... idols don’t have that liberty, you know that Sunggyu-yah. This could have become a controversy and our company doesn’t have the ability to get past controversies at this stage. We are barely managing to survive. Woollim has only one hope now to make it big and that is Infinite. All of you know that and despite that Woohyun let his personal life affect his performance. I am seriously disappointed. I was sorry for him too and I care for him too, but I wanted to give him a lesson.”

“That was cruel.” Sungjong remarked.

“I felt sorry for doing that too, but you guys need to take responsibility for your actions.”

“We didn’t do anything. It was Nam-“, Sungyeol began whining but Sunggyu placed a finger on Sungyeol’s mouth shaking his head, gesturing him to keep quiet. _Now is not the time and place for it._

“Now how do we convince him that you lied?” Dongwoo asked.

“That’s up to you. Do you want me to call him and tell him the truth?” Jungyeop asked.

“Yes. No. No. Wait.” Sunggyu hurriedly said. “That idiot believed what you said. We need to teach him a lesson.”

“Don’t be harsh on him, Sunggyu-yah.” The CEO replied.

“Look who’s saying that.” Hoya snorted.

Jungyeop laughed. “Really, don’t be harsh or I don’t know what Boohyun might do to you. He is already pissed off at all of you, for not taking care of his baby brother.”

“Yes. We will surely take care of his baby brother.” Sungyeol mimicked Boohyun.

“I will call you at around 10 then.” The CEO said, as if he was too busy. “I trust you to manage everything, Sunggyu. And Sungjong, Dongwoo, Sungyeol and Hoya, don’t go overboard. Is Myung there too?”

“Yes.” Myungsoo said.

“Good. Then that applies to you too. Now go handle him. Bye.”

“Bye.” They said and Sunggyu ended the call.

Sunggyu sighed and sat down beside Sungyeol on the bed. “I am relieved Jungyeop sshi doesn’t want Woohyun to leave the group.”

“Me too. I was scared.” Dongwoo said.

“What if he’s gone now? We left Woohyun on his own outside!” Sungyeol said worriedly.

They all looked at the door of the room.

Myungsoo who was closest to the door, brought his finger to his mouth indicating them to keep quiet and slowly opened the door a bit. As soon as he opened it, peeking his head out to see, he quickly shut it.

“Hyung was there.” Myungsoo said as if he saw a ghost, “But he was looking here. He saw me.” He shivered.

“Of course he would be looking at the door, waiting for us to come out.” Hoya said.

“Don’t get so worked up hyung. You are looking very scared.” Sungjong said and back-hugged Myungsoo.

Sunggyu clapped his hands. “Okay okay. Let’s discuss what do we do fast. I know we have to sincerely ask for forgiveness from him as we decided, but I believe we should teach him a lesson as Jungyeop-sshi said. We are not the only ones at fault here. I have an idea.” Sunggyu said, holding his chin. “We behave as if we actually wanted him to leave the group and see his reaction. We will reveal the truth after some time. Let’s see how he reacts.”

“I am against it.” Dongwoo said. ”Hyung, Woohyun was crying. Didn’t you see? He was crying his heart out there! He already looks devastated. I don’t think I will be able to keep this from him. We were supposed to apologize to him. If we would have had handled the situation better, he would not have been as devastated and fragile as he is now.”

They thought for some time on that, but immediately Sunggyu and Hoya began to speak. They looked at each other and Sunggyu gestured Hoya to speak.

“I don’t agree with Dongwoo hyung. We should teach him a lesson. That guy will have his heart broken again sometime. It’s possible. He should know how to handle himself.” Hoya argued. “I agree that it’s our fault too not helping him, but doesn’t he trust us? I wouldn’t have believed if anyone one of you told me that you wanted me out of the group, even if we were fighting, and if any of you had said that, I would take it as a joke. Infinite means a lot to each one of us and how can he believe we will throw him out like that?”

“That’s right. Hoya’s right. I don’t like this too. But Woohyun doesn’t trust us. I didn’t like it.” Sunggyu said.

“What we are planning to do will make him lose his trust on us even more.” Sungyeol said. “But I suppose he should have asked first before jumping onto conclusions.”

“But we didn’t contact Woohyun hyung at all.” Myungsoo argued. “ _He_ had to come to us to talk. _We_ didn’t go to him.”

“We did not go to him, because they did not let us. Also we wanted to give him some space and time to recover. That’s what we agreed right?” Hoya said.

“On top of that he insulted me now outside.” Sunggyu said angrily. It hurt Sunggyu that he missed Woohyun. He hadn’t thought he would miss any of the members if they went away for any reason. At least, not miss them that badly. They were all a bunch of kids forced to be together anyway. It was not like they were really family. They could leave whenever they want. They wouldn’t and it was not that easy, but Sunggyu didn’t think that anyone would miss him terribly, if he were to suddenly enlist in the army, or simply go away from here, except his real biological family. But his real family was used to being away from him. And these people, he was sure; these six people would be happy, happy that the commanding annoying hyung was gone. They had even said that many times. And every time it hurt Sunggyu, thinking that his existence was not important, but he had learned to live with it. He was not the best leader after all. He had to keep the fake pretence of being confident though and he had continued going along with it. Also Sunggyu hated the fact that the first conversation he had had with Woohyun after such a long time, had involved Woohyun insulting him. If they were not in this situation, he would have seriously punched him hard. But seeing Woohyun that angry, had stopped him. Also the hurt reflecting in Woohyun’s eyes when he had accused them made him shocked. As if Woohyun’s life had stopped. As if he had no hope to live now.

“Woohyun hyung insulted all of us.” Sungjong said when no one said anything in response to Sunggyu’s statement. “But I am in for your plan, Sunggyu hyung. Let’s trick him but we will let him know today itself about the truth and apologize to him. After seeing him today, I realized how much I missed him.”

All of them looked down and Woohyun’s crying face flashed in front of them.

“Alright. I am with you then-” Dongwoo started to speak but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

All of them became still. Another knock and, “Am I supposed to leave?” Woohyun’s low voice came from across the door.

Sunggyu asked the members without voicing out, whether all of them were fine with the plan. When all heads nodded, Sunggyu went towards the door and opened it. Woohyun was still in front of the door of their room. He averted his eyes when they met Sunggyu’s.

“Nam Woohyun. Who said anything about leaving?” Sunggyu asked in a voice that didn’t betray any emotions. When Woohyun looked up at him, eyes wide, Sunggyu continued. “Of course, you can stay here for as long as you want. Like you said, Jungyeop-sshi is quite caring and he wouldn’t mind if you stayed here for some time.”

Sunggyu pushed Woohyun aside and entered the living room, the other members following behind him.

Sunggyu turned to look at Woohyun who was facing them now, but still standing in front of the bedroom door, and continued, “Anyway, we have to discuss about the terms of the cancellation of your contract. I think Woollim might be interested in letting you debut as a solo artist, since you couldn’t work well in a team, and already have some fanbase for them to bank on. They would not want to let go of a talent they worked so hard on. The rest of us might not be required to discuss the contract cancellation. But since it affects the group, they will probably require us. Also it would be better if you stay here for some time, at least, one night, since you will have to do a lot of packing of stuff. We won’t be able to remove your stuff from the dorm on our own. You will have to do that.” Sunggyu was about to continue on his made up speech, but was stopped by the force of his collar being pulled by Woohyun.

Woohyun pulled him by the collar harshly; putting his face closer to Sunggyu’s, their heavy breaths mingling. “So, it was true? I am being thrown out?” Woohyun asked, anger and hurt leaking out of his voice. Sunggyu used all his restraint to stop himself from showing any emotions to Woohyun; he tried at least, as well as he could, after seeing Woohyun’s face contorted with so many emotions at once.

Thankfully, the others saved him. Hoya made Woohyun let go of Sunggyu’s collar and Sungyeol replied to Woohyun. “Yes, hyung. Did you think they would let you off after making such a big mistake? Even if they did, we cannot afford to lose what we have struggled so hard to achieved. We have sacrificed a lot and you letting your emotions affecting your performance, what do you think, how long are we supposed to wait for you? We would have considered continuing with you, if you had returned within a few days, but you came back so late.”

Woohyun directed his anger at Sungyeol. “What gives you people the right to take decisions?!”

Sungyeol shrugged. “It’s not like the agency has not agreed with our decision.” Sungyeol then went to his room and retrieved some papers handing them to Woohyun. “Look at this.”

Woohyun’s legs gave and he tumbled down to the floor on reading the papers. It was the lyrics distribution for their supposedly comeback song, as it stated, and it did not indicate any parts for Woohyun.

After some time, Woohyun let out a sound which they made out to be a snort.

“What are you laughing at?” Sungyeol asked.

Woohyun replied condescendingly, “Do they think giving these many lines to you will help the album achieve success? You can’t sing at all! The album will be a failure.”

Sunggyu had been worried that Sungyeol’s act might be discovered by Woohyun till then (the Woohyun he knew was quite perceptive), but when Sunggyu heard Woohyun say what he said, he was sure Sungyeol would be actually angry. It would help their act. But it hurt Sunggyu nevertheless. Sungyeol had always been weaker than them at vocals but Woohyun had been helping Sungyeol and to hear Woohyun say such words made Sunggyu think of stopping their act. This whole thing would hurt them. But before he could think of some way to reveal their act to Woohyun, Dongwoo stepped in.

But no, Dongwoo did not just step in, he slapped Woohyun. Not a light brush of hands, but a tight slap. Woohyun held his slapped cheek and looked up at Dongwoo in shock. Dongwoo was heaving with anger. “Don’t you dare say such things! You have already damaged a lot of things. Now don’t dare to break us!” Dongwoo shouted and looked to Sunggyu with tears in his eyes. “Hyung please stop this. I can’t take this anymore. We will just hurt each other.” Dongwoo then went to Woohyun and hugged him asking the younger to forgive him. But Woohyun was already in tears, crying terribly.

Sunggyu wanted to beat himself for suggesting the idea of punishing Woohyun when they were supposed to apologize to him. He should have listened to Dongwoo and just gone ahead with their original plan. Sunggyu was not worthy to be called a leader. He let emotions take precedence over logic and the group had to suffer because of him. Sunggyu will have to fix everything now. He clenched his fists and was ready to resolve the whole fiasco, when the doorbell rang. Sungjong, who was next to the door, opened it, before Sunggyu could prevent him from doing so, and Nam Boohyun stormed in. Woohyun’s brother began looking everywhere to find his dongsaeng, and found him in Dongwoo’s arms, crying. Boohyun’s handsome contorted into an angry one and all of them began fearing for their lives. He snatched Woohyun from Dongwoo, making Dongwoo flinch. Woohyun was surprised but he just snuggled into his brother’s chest and continued crying without tears as he had already cried a waterfall. Boohyun looked at the others calmly and said in a serious tone-

“Alright, if this is what you want, you will get it. I was terribly wrong to consider giving you a second chance. Woohyun will no longer work with you guys. If you still have anything to say to convince me otherwise, shut your trap. Because I don’t care.”

After saying that, he walked out of the house taking Woohyun with him. The younger seemed to protest, but Boohyun was adamant, so Woohyun gave up finally and walked out with him. Woohyun did not even look back once before leaving the threshold of the house. If he had, he would have seen Myungsoo fainting and would have alerted the others.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked it~


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